Sustainability

Gas flaring is carried out to ensure the safety of personnel and protect strategic facilities during the start-up of new equipment, maintenance, or equipment shutdowns; it also demonstrates that the equipment is operating in accordance with the plant's process regulations. TCO’s KTL and Second Generation Plant (SGP) remain as the reliable, efficient and the safest facilities in Kazakhstan as a result of improvements in plant reliability and upgrades of processes and equipment. TCO eliminated continuous routine flaring of associated gas since 2009 and now 99% of the produced gas is exported or used for Company’s internal needs.

TCO is conscious of the social, environmental and economic importance of freshwater and therefore, the Company is committed to rational use of water resources. Increased water demand due to population and industrial growth has put limitations on the water supply from the Magistralnyi Vodoprovod (MV) line, the main waterline. TCO’s goal is not to increase the water consumption volume from MV, despite the growing number of personnel and increase in production capacity due to the construction of Future Growth Project – Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP). From 2013 to 2016 TCO commissioned a Wastewater Treatment Facility (WTF) and associated Water Recycling Facilities (WRF) to focus on freshwater conservation and wastewater management. WRF is considered as a major component of TCO’s long-term, comprehensive water management program. At WRF the secondary treatment of wastewater from WTF is carried out by applying reverse osmosis technique. This system produces high quality treated water for operational purposes. TCO regularly conducts water saving campaigns promoting a water saving culture. By supporting the water conservation initiatives and wastewater management the water reuse at TCO facilities in 2021 made up 46% of total water demand.

Safe waste management is one of the strategic directions of TCO activity. TCO’s integrated waste management system focuses on waste reduction, reusing and recycling, or more simply the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) Program. The current waste management practice gives the wastes “a second life”, when possible. It’s worth mentioning Company's efforts in development of waste reuse and recycling. TCO has already successfully diverted more than 50% of its waste to third party waste management facilities. To comply with updated regulatory requirements, in 2021 TCO has concluded agreements for collection, removal and recycling of construction, demolition and food wastes: food waste is processed by thermomechanical treatment to produce fertilizer and technical water as final products; construction and demolition waste is sorted into components with release of secondary materials for recycling. The Tengiz Eco Center (TEC) is the heart of waste management operations. The facility was commissioned to enable interim storage, disinfection, recycling, and disposal of waste generated by the company and its business-partners engaged in TCO operations. TCO will continue to strive and achieve even better waste management performance to support Green principles outlined by the government of the RoK, thereby ensuring compliance with the RoK regulations and international standards.

The diversity of ecosystem in Western Kazakhstan provides ecological, recreational, cultural and esthetic value, playing an important role in sustainable development. Supporting project aimed to preserve and create breeding conditions of the Sociable Lapwing. The Sociable Lapwing, a bird listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), breeds on open grassland in the steppes. In 2021, TCO provided financial support to the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) to initiate a three-year program with the following objectives: working with farmers to safeguard nests at risk from plowing, satellite tracking of these birds, field research. More broadly, TCO implements environmental protection program for the conservation of nests. Due to the successful implementation of bird nests management plans and timely response, almost 60% of the discovered nests were active and nesting ended with a successful chick hatch. Sturgeon Hatchery Support As part of the project efforts, an Additional Conservation Action to support Ural-Atyrau Sturgeon Hatchery was implemented to achieve Net Gain for sturgeon. The aim of the program is to reduce the number of adult fish removed from the wild population each year and increase the percentage of wild caught broodstock that are returned to the sea. This is being done by improving the survivorship and productivity of sturgeon broodstock of the Ural-Atyrau Sturgeon Hatchery. The following efforts led to positive changes: the provision of high-quality feed for the broodstock and fry, aerators for oxygenation of rearing ponds, an excavator for external dredging work on the farm ponds. Additionally, TCO purchased and donated winter and summer water chillers for basins with closed water supply. As a result of the support provided to the Ural-Atyrau Sturgeon Hatchery, the sturgeon broodstock have shown an increase in weight. Ghost Net Removal Project. The project aims to prevent seals and fish from being caught in fishing nets by physically retrieving abandoned nets and to protect and contribute to the growth of endangered marine species such as the Caspian seal and sturgeon. As a result of the efforts of this project around 4300 kg of abandoned nets and 1000 kg of marine debris were collected in one season in 2021. Since 2014, 878 abandoned fishing nets (20 500 kg) and over 9000 kg of marine debris have been removed from the Caspian Sea, 53 sturgeons and 15 seals were freed from the abandoned nets.